October

Sanity Check -- NYC

Last week I went here . . . To get away from this . . .

but mostly to see . . .

I wandered through here . . .

and experienced this . . .

I walked across this . . .

On which I saw this . . .

And then the east coast and Dallas contingents of my family arrived and we had a great weekend together!

When Mark left for New York, we planned for me to visit him after he had been there for six weeks and it couldn't have been better planned in terms of my sanity preservation! The week before I left I was feeling pretty maxxed out so it was a wonderful break to fly off on my own with several books in my carry-on (all child snacks, dollar-store toys, coloring books and crayons, diapers, wipes, and binkies were confiscated before boarding -- old habits die hard :)) and join up with Mark. Words can't express how wonderful it was to see him again -- even though it was his busiest week of training (unfortunately we didn't know this when we planned my visit).

During the days before my family arrived, I walked the Brooklyn Bridge and tooled around the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood (never spent much time in Brooklyn before), walked around the city enjoying the nippiness of the Fall air, slept in, walked Mark to work, walked through Central Park (made me miss the girls terribly to pass by all the places we played last summer), saw Mary Poppins on Broadway (ok, but didn't really wow me), and went to dinner with Mark in the evenings. Mark was also given some complimentary tickets to the Metropolitan Opera from a ward member who is in the opera and so we had fun experiencing that (too bad that I had forgotten to bring my full-length chiffon and sequined evening gown and my fur stole).

After my mom, dad, and Dave arrived from D.C., Jennifer and Matt from Dallas, and Matt and Sara from Boston, we had a wonderful time visiting the special Van Gogh exhibit at the MOMA (a definite highlight!), visiting the Met, visiting Ground Zero, walking the Brooklyn Bridge at night and then eating at Grimaldi's famous pizzaria, watching Boston lose to the Rays (the losing part wasn't fun for those of us who are Red Sox fans and even though I sound like I'm in the know, it was mostly Mark watching and me talking) from Jennifer's and Matt's room in the Waldorf Astoria, and walking through SoHo and Greenwich Village.

Ground Zero

Waiting in the cold for pizza that was definitely worth the wait.

Enjoying Grimaldi's pizza

In order for a New York trip to be fully satisfying to my sister Jennifer, it must involve a celebrity sighting. To date, she has seen at least one celebrity during each of her visits. We were getting worried when, as of late Saturday afternoon, we had yet to encounter one. Then, as we were walking through SoHo, we stopped by a park to watch a little bit of a roller hockey game and even though we were all watching the game, Jennifer was the only one who noticed that the tall, gray-haired guy playing closest to us was none other than Tim Robbins (her ability really is uncanny). We were all rather amazed that she had recognized him and then my dad started to heckle him calling out things like: "More defense, Tim!" or "Way to go, Tim!" for which he earned a smile and a nod. Not wanting to feel like a celebrity-crazed paparazzo, I didn't initially take a picture, but since I was the only one who had a camera with her at the time, I finally took this blurry, distant, and through-the-chain-link fence shot while he was on the bench. One observation -- he's much taller than I would have thought.

A family picture after church.

Mommy turns ?
I wasn't really thinking much about my birthday this year, not expecting much, but had a wonderful day thanks to all of those who called or emailed, to Mark for sending me surprise flowers, and to amazing visiting teachers who brought me a yummy lunch. The girls and I had a fun night (so nice that it was also children's night!) going to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe to celebrate my and Abby's birthday.

Abby Turns 4!

I can't believe my little Abby is 4 years old! She is growing up so much! She has the best sense of humor. It is even better for the fact that it is completely under the radar. Most of the time she is so sweet and rather soft-spoken so that when she breaks out the funnies, they are really funny!

To celebrate her birthday, we had a pajama party, and she was so excited she just "couldn't wait". Every night she would ask what day it was going to be the next day in eager anticipation of blessed event. It was very low-key (still on my own), but we had a great time decorating pillow cases, having a treasure hunt and fishing pond, and playing some other fun party games. It made me so happy to see her so thrilled to have her friends there to celebrate with her! Upon going to bed, she said, "Thanks, Mom, foah the gweat powty! It was the best powty evow!"

Eagerly waiting for friends to arrive

Crowning Moment -- the revelers after a rousing game of Pin the Crown on Sleeping Beauty. Let it be noted that Mommy, herself, is not renowned for her artistic ability. Abby, however, did color Sleeping Beauty beautifully.

After blowing out the candles on her flower cake.

A little sisterly love during craft time.

Showing of the loot from the treasure hunt.

So much fun!

Checking out the birthday presents.

Tea Time

At the beginning of the month the girls were invited to a "tea party" and I thought these pictures were cute so I had to post them.

High society

Mademoiselle Millie

Miss Jane

Lady Abby

Getting Back to Normal and Visiting Dallas

Abby helping clean-up the hurricane debris in our front yard. I wish I had gotten a picture of our friends who brought their whole family to help us!

Watching Jennifer's Jake play soccer for the Dallas Texans. Uncle Matt O. was so nice to provide the whole gang with donuts during the game. It was fun to see the Texans win 5-0!
Millie and David had a great time with each other.
Every time Jane saw Grammie she would call out "Hi, Gammy!"
Abby and Emma taking a break in the shade
The girls loved the playhouse (nicely lighted and air-conditioned) at their cousins house. Abby, especially, loved playing hostess at pretend tea parties.

Finally, fortunately, things are starting to get more back to normal. School started up again after being off for a week, our church building got power last night, the stores are again stocking produce, the wreckage has been heaped in nice piles by the curb (we're so grateful for our friends from down the street who came over and helped us clear up the debris from our yard!). I still can't believe that there are quite a few people without power and feel for those who haven't even been able to make it back into their homes yet.

After feeling crazed with cabin fever last week, the girls and I drove up to Dallas to spend the weekend with my sister's family. My grandma and aunt were also visiting from SLC and it was wonderful to be with all of them! The girls enjoyed their cousins so much -- especially in the pool and the playhouse -- and I enjoyed the adult conversation. It's so nice to be close (relatively) to family.

Hurricane Ike

We are now hurricane survivors -- something, quite frankly, I never dreamed would be within my realm of experience. We have, however, weathered Hurricane Ike -- a mammoth storm roughly the size of the state of Texas or New England -- and emerged unscathed. Due to a slight easterly jog in the storm as it made landfall, we were able to avoid the fiercest part of the storm, but from what I understand, the winds and windgusts in our area were 80-100 mph and we got a lot of rainfall.

In our area, we were told to expect there to be widespread power outages, wind damage, possible flooding, and the likelihood of tornados spawned by the storm so we spent the week preparing. I have to admit that it was a little daunting to face it all without Mark here, but so many people called and were willing to help, we felt really taken care of. It was also good for me, too, to feel that I could rise to the challenge.

Preparing for the storm took me the better part of three days. When I went to Wal-Mart earlier in the week to stock up on water, food, and supplies, many of the shelves were already beginning to look bare and there were large pallets of water bottles by each register. Wanting to top off my gas tank on Thursday night, I had to go to 3 different gas stations before finding one that, while out of unleaded fuel, at least had super unleaded I could use. I got the last three bags of ice at one grocery store I went to, and never was able to find a small canister of propane for my gas burner even though I tried 4 different stores.

The biggest dilemma was whether or not we should stay in our house for the night (the storm was expected to make landfall in the early hours of Saturday morning) or go to a friend's house for the night. In the end I decided to stay at home. Various neighbors, knowing Mark was out of town, had come by to offer assistance and so we thought, if we were extraordinarily worried, we could run next door.

In case anyone is curious about how one spends one's day prior to experiencing a hurricane, here's a rough schedule of my day before the storm hit:
8:00 a.m. breakfast

8:15 pull in garbage cans, grill, bikes, doormats and anything else in the yard that could become a projectile in the wind

9:00 go out in search of D batteries for our radio which I had forgotten to get in my previous shopping trips. After visiting two stores, I asked Abby to say a prayer that we would be able to find some. As we made our way through Target, every battery stand was out of D batteries. We continued back to the back of the store to check in one final place and there was an employee just beginning to restock size D batteries.

10:00 give girls their "final baths" before possibly losing power and water service for days, do laundry, pack a three-day supply of clothes for all of us, organize supplies

12:00 put food in the crockpot for dinner

2:00 fill buckets with water for cleaning and flushing

3:00 take a break to watch news updates

3:30 clear out closet beneath the stairs in case we need a tornado shelter

4:00 take my "final shower" and fill tubs with water

4:30 get dinner ready, have girls pick up, talk on phone (in reality it has been fused to my ear most of the day), I talk to Mark and ask him to start thinking about where he would like to live next :)

5:00 dinner, read with girls

6:00 move mattresses down from girls' beds to prop against windows, set up girls sleeping bags, power begins to go out and come back on

8:30 girls watch Finding Nemo (yes, they chose a water-related movie) on our portable DVD player, I talk on the phone and peer out the window at the gusting wind, the power goes out and doesn't come on within a few minutes, Jane begins to freak out (doesn't know why she is having to sleep in the living room, doesn't like the dark . . .)

11:00 power comes back on and stays on most of the night (only blipping in and out 5 or 6 times during the entire storm -- miracle! It seems that our street was one of the few that had power most of the night and never lost it afterward. Most of the surrounding areas lost power and some are still out), winds are really strong, no rain yet, radio gives word of tornado and hurricane warnings

3:00 a.m. Wind howling outside, rain lashing the windows, I finally fall asleep out of pure exhaustion

6:44 awakened by the bishop's call to see how we are doing. I do a walk-through of the house and find that all is well. The yard is littered with debris, but the house, trees, garage and fence are safe.

We feel tremendously blessed that we have power and didn't sustain any major damage. We know of various people who have lost trees, branches, and fences.

The girls were amazing. Millie, noticing the closet I had cleared out as a tornado shelter, went about decorating it and stocking it with books and coloring supplies. When I explained that I wanted them to sleep with their flip-flops nearby in case we had shattered glass, she said, "You're so smart to think about that!" Abby, while settling into her sleeping bag to watch the movie said, "This is fun!" and wanted to sleep downstairs the next night, too. Jane eventually got to sleep, but for her, it was not so fun. They were real troupers.

Millie was, however, a little concerned about the storm. While we were out getting supplies she said, "Mommy, when are the tornados going to destroy us?" She also asked if I was going to stay up all night long to listen to the radio and make sure that the tornados weren't coming. In the morning, she sat up in her sleeping bag and said, "Oh, I thought we were going to die." She was such a brave little thing, though.

Millie's journal entry about the storm:

I thought we were going to die and that there would be lots of tornados. It was scary, but we had a fun night. We watched a movie. Mom told us stories. The electricity went on and off. It flooded in the back yard all the way up to my ankles. There were lots of twigs around.

Abby's journal entry:

It was so quiet when I was asleep. The wind was a little loud. It made so many trees fall down. I fell right to sleep when it came. It was outside. Long branches came down. I slept in my nap mat. And the wind was really blowing, blowing, blowing, and blowing and blowing and blowing.

All ready to go
Millie's decorations and supplies in our "tornado shelter"

Hunkering down in the living room
Hard to get a picture that does it justice. I popped outside the back door as things were starting to pick up to take a picture.
The backyard after the storm

Water accumulation in our backyard
Branches down across the street.
The remains of a neighbor's fence.

Daddy's Girls

This is for you, Mark! We love you and miss you so much!

Home Improvement

Living Room
Study
Kitchen
Breakfast Nook
Master Bath

We spent a good portion of July and August working on some home improvement projects -- mostly stripping wallpaper, switching out some fixtures, and adding some accessories. Overall, we didn't do any major remodeling, just a aesthetic changes to make it feel more like home to us. The mammoth project was stripping two layers of wallpaper in three or four of the rooms (Mark handled the lion's share of that work and did an amazing job). Anyway, here are a few pictures of the main level (we haven't tackled much upstairs yet).

First Day of Preschool

Abby and Jane started preschool this week and were very excited about it. Abby dove right in and is relishing being back in school and making new friends. Jane, who is just going one day for a Mother's Day Out, took a little more time to warm up. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep her in because she's so young. Perhaps just while Mark's gone.

August

Soccer girl

I have now joined the ranks of the soccer mom. Millie just started soccer and is loving it. At first, she was resistant -- she didn't want to play in front of other people, she didn't know how to play, she thought the pink and black cleats I got her (too cute) were ugly -- yada yada yada. However, after the first practice she was hooked! It doesn't matter that half the time she spends on the field she is in imagination land, or that during her second practice she took a break to come and tell Daddy that they needed to find a shovel because the X painted on the field meant that there was buried treasure (to be fair, she did ask her coach if she could leave to go tell Dad the big news), or that half the time she skips towards the ball rather than running at it agressively, or that she scored the first goal of her first game for the opposing team. She loves it and even blocked three goals playing goalie late in the game.

Madeline the Frog

Millie, ever the creature-lover, captured a frog (toad? I don't know the difference) in our backyard this week and treasured it until it disappeared. How she loved her Madeline (she names her creatures after friends)! We are still unsure and at odds about how Madeline disappeared. Mommy thinks that she somehow escaped from her none-too-secure container on her own. Millie alledges that she was eaten by a vicious snake in the backyard. For Mommy's peace of mind, she is hoping that Millie's hypothesis is not the correct one.

Labor Day at the Children's Museum Jester Jane. The kids got to do their own face-painting while looking in the mirror. Jane couldn't seem to get past one spot on her cheek which she kept painting over and over again.
Abby doing some fishing

Senorita Abby serving up some tacos.
Millie and her friends.
Jumping Jane -- very happy to be there and very happy not to be confined to her stroller.
Pulling Abby up on the pulley -- perhaps this is how I threw out my back?
Painted princesses

The girls had a wonderful time at the Houston Children's Museum on Labor Day with our good friends the Craners. It was so great to get out of the house and have some fun in a nice, cool place with lots of engaging activities. It really is a great museum.

Daddy-Daughter Date

Mark has now left for his 10 weeks of training in NYC and we miss him terribly! I have been preparing mentally for this for 5 months, but it still didn't make it any easier to have him go. I was all geared up, though, to put on my sturdy, Mormon woman face and weather through. I was actually doing very well the first few days, and then I threw my back out (herniated disc) and spent the week in agonized empathy for all of those who suffer from chronic back pain! The timing couldn't have been worse, but our ward has been amazing! The young men showed up Saturday morning to do the lawn, my visiting teachers came and cleaned my house (Mark says that I've just got to learn to grit my teeth and let people serve me, but it's very hard to do), other people have brought dinner or invited us over, several women have watched my kids at different times. It's been incredible and I am so touched by the service of so many -- especially when they hardly know me! I feel very well taken care of, even though Mark is so far away. We have also loved talking to Daddy via our web cam.

Before he left, Mark took the older two girls to a high school football game (high school football is huge in TX) for a Daddy-Daughter Date. They had so much fun! They called me from the car on the way home and Millie was thrilled to have gotten one of the small, plastic footballs that the cheerleaders threw into the crowd. Abby just said, "I have a stomache ache, Mommy, because I ate too many sweet tweats (treats)." We all really miss Daddy!

First Grade Here We Come!

Millie is now a full-fledged first-grader and is loving her new school (and bus, of course). Sending her off this year was a little easier than last, but my heart still ached as I thought about how big she is getting! She is such a bright light in our home with her endless creativity and her sunny smile. She is so capable and helpful and has such sweet and tender heart. I think she could pretty much run the house if I needed her to. She loves making the girls lunch or getting them snacks, or taking care of Jane's needs (far be it for me to get in the way). Apparently, she also sometimes likes to give her opinion when it's not solicited. The other day, she told me that she had told her new friend at lunch at school that she should eat her other food before eating her Oreos.

She is loving her class and is very motivated by the different behavioral incentive programs they have at school. She comes home from school everyday chattering like a magpie about all that happened that day (I love that she loves to share her day with me!). She is currently all wrapped up in the idea that she wants to be an animal scientist and loves to study about various animals and write about them in her "animal scientist notebook".

Happy Birthday, Mark!

We love you!!

A visit to Austin Millie catching up with her cousin David.
Jane and Emma trying to fight the heat under the tent during the game.

Early in August, we visited Austin to connect with my sister and her family. They live in Dallas, but were going to be in Austin for my nephew's soccer tournament (go Jake!) and so we decided to drive the 2 1/2 hours to meet up with them. Jennifer and her son, David, met up with us at the outlets in San Marcos (the most amazing outlets I've ever seen -- every store was there.) where we shopped for a few hours before heading off to see Jake's afternoon game. The heat was intense, but it was worth it to see Jake in action! We had so much fun being together and eating at a fun Italian restaurant that night for Mark's birthday. The drive? Flat, barren, waste-land, not quite like the green, tree-filled drives we've been used to back east. Austin? Seems like a really nice city, although I did expect the hills of the "hill country" to be a little bigger.

9 Years
Mark and I celebrated our 9th anniversary at the beginning of August and it's hard to believe that it has already been 9 years -- 9 busy, eventful, full-of-fun-times, full-of-surprises, growing-together years! I remember our first meeting clearly.

It was a Sunday evening in the Fall and I was making some visits to some of the girls in our BYU ward. I had recently returned from my mission and had spoken in church that day. When I came to one apartment, I saw Mark, sleeves rolled up, washing the dishes after having been invited there for dinner. He began a conversation with me about my talk and that was our first contact. The next week he walked me home from a ward fireside. After that he arranged group activities for our respective apartments. Finally, we went out that December to an all-Gershwin concert at Abravenel Hall in Salt Lake. From the first, I felt comfortable and had fun with him. As I got to know him better, I appreciated his eternal optimism (even after I told him that there was "no chance of anything ever happening romantically between us" :)), his consideration for other people, his spiritual grounding, his sense of fun, his love for me. I still love all of those things and all of the other amazing things I've learned about him since then! What a blessed girl I am to have such a husband, laird :), friend, and companion!